Introspect [The Mating Games #3]

WENDELL ZERONE

Despite Wendell having tested out the scent masking spray before, he didn’t remember it being quite this strong.

Usually when he walked into a room full of wolves, especially when there were so many as there were today, all the different scents and presences were quite overwhelming. With the island being not so big in the first place, it was something that wolves usually got used to.

However, all the wolves present here today should have been an overwhelming sensation but instead, he felt nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

It was both immensely frightening and relieving at the same time. More so frightening as he needed to find his mate while the scent masking spray was in use. Well, maybe not so frightening as he had already narrowed it down to two she-wolves – a piece of information that he would be keeping to himself.

Perhaps this is a right of passage, he couldn’t help but think to himself. Bernard had tried staking out the island in hopes of finding his mate – unsuccessfully, one might add as Talulah hadn’t even arrived on the island at that time. – and he had tried something similar by arriving to the palace earlier. While they were both initially unsuccessful, Wendell had someone managed to stumbled across the answer when he hadn’t even been looking for it.

If he didn’t need to keep it a secret to avoid punishment for breaking the rules – albeit unintentionally – he would have been brimming with joy right now.

Instead, he kept his chin up and headed toward the group of four that he had been watching earlier.

With an extra-friendly smile on his face, he moved over to the group. Standing slightly behind the two males, he stared over the shoulder of the shorter one and caught the eye of both the females. At his presence, they both smiled and when they did, the men stood in front of them glanced curiously over their shoulder.

By this point, Wendell had commandeered all of their attention so decided it was about time he introduced himself.

“I’m Wendell,” he smiled in greeting, taking a step forward to infiltrate their circle. “I hope you guys don’t mind me joining you.”

“No, of course, not,” the male stood closest to him smiled back at him; friendly. “I’m Ethan from the Blood Rose pack,” he introduced himself before moving to introduce the others. “This is Holly, Rain and Troy,” he said, pointing at both of the females and then the male stood furthest away from him.

While both she-wolves seemed pretty friendly enough and he would be more than happy to end up with either of them as a mate, he still couldn’t pinpoint which one of them was destined for him. When they were stood outside of the palace, the scent masking spray wasn’t in use yet then so he had an advantage. However, all four of them were stood so close that he was unable to determine exactly which she-wolf was his mate.

Now, he still couldn’t do that as the scent masking spray was wrapped around them all like a scarf around a neck in winter.

“The Blood Rose pack?” Wendell hummed thoughtfully, immediately recognising the pack name. “Ruled by Alpha Jasper Brack in England?”

“That’s the one,” Holly smiled brightly, moving to stand on the other side of him as both Troy and Ethan were distracted by a duo of females that approached them.

“You seem very powerful,” Rain hummed aloud, cocking her head to the side as she watched him. “You must be ranked very high in your pack.”

Turning his head to face the second she-wolf, Rain, Wendell couldn’t help but note that she was far more attractive than her friend. At least to him, anyway. While Holly was very bubbly with her bouncy blonde beach waves that fit in perfectly for the very polished, boss-woman vibe that she was clearly going for. Rain, on the other hand, was a dark beauty. The only light thing about her was her skin which was significantly lighter than his mocha tone. Her hair was short and dark, and her eyes even darker which framed her sharp, cat-like features beautifully.

Wendell couldn’t help but go back and amend his previous thought. While he still wouldn’t mind either Holly or Rain being his mate, he was now certain that it was Rain that was destined to be his.

“I couldn’t imagine what would give you that impression,” Wendell chuckled, subconsciously turning his body to face her.

“I agree. Are you an Alpha or something?” Holly asked curiously, eager to insert herself back into the situation.

“Not quite an Alpha,” he chuckled, trying not to seem too nervous. In his twenty-two years alive, Wendell had very minimal interaction with wolves that were from off the island. Everyone here already knew that he was to be the future Beta; something which he had never had to mention, let alone explain before.

But there was always a first for everything.

“If you’re not an Alpha, then that would make you a Beta?” Rain guessed, a calculated look on your face.

Wendell nodded in confirmation but before he could comment further, Holly said, “I find that hard to believe.”

“What do you find hard to believe?” he asked, turning his head to face her.

“You seem far more powerful than a Beta,” she hummed, narrowing her eyes slightly as she stared at him. “If I’m being completely honest, you feel far too powerful than a regular Alpha as well.”

“And since we already have an Alpha king, then I’m guessing you’re the royal Beta?”

“Royal Beta to be,” he clarified; a small smile on his face. As this was a foreign situation for him, he tried not to come across as too awkward but honestly, didn’t believe himself to be very effective in that so far.

“You’re Royal Beta Wendell Zerone?” Holly all but exclaimed, her jaw dropped in shock. When he didn’t immediately answer, she seemed to take as confirmation and before he could stop her, she started squealing.

At her sudden and very strange reaction, Wendell winced and took a step back. Even with the scent masking spray numbing the usual wolfish enhancements such as focused hearing, the sound was far too loud and high pitched for him.

“Holly!” Rain exclaimed, a deep flush marring her skin as she stared wide-eyed at her friend.

Not wanting to make a further spectacle out of the rather bizarre situation, Wendell chuckled nervously.

“Like I said before, I’m to become the Royal Beta. My father is currently the Royal Beta so I’m nothing more than just a regular wolf right now,” he shrugged casually, speaking what he genuinely believed to be the truth. While he was planning to take over the Beta role from his father once he had a mate, he didn’t hold a title as of the moment.

“I think you’re so much more than a regular wolf,” Holly snorted, her lips stretched out into a large grin.

“Holly,” Rain smiled but it was tight around the edges, the warning tone evident in her tone. Holly and Rain shared a silent look for a moment before they both turned their attention back to Wendell. And the whole time, he watched the exchange between them with an amused glint in his eyes.

More than finding Holly’s reaction offensive or bothersome, he found it quite funny.

“Since you both now know so much about me, I’d love to learn more about you,” the smile remained on his face as he glanced between both of the she-wolves.

“There’s nothing much to say about us,” Rain shrugged. “We’re both from England – the British Rose pack. I’m a warrior and Holly works in the high school. We’ve been friends since pre-school so it’s pretty cool that we both received invitations to the same Mating Games.”

“There’s nothing much to say about us? Speak for yourself?” Holly snorted and laughed, flicking her hair over her shoulder. “I work at the local high school for the time being but I’m really trying to do is launch my online business.”

“Oh, really?” Wendell hummed in question, genuinely curious. “What kind of online business?”

“I’ve started my own cosmetics company,” Holly beamed at him, clearly very passionate about her work. “I only started it a few months ago so it’s still quite small.”

“That just means that there’s plenty of space to grow,” Wendell cut in.

“That’s exactly what I say!” she grinned before continuing. “Most of my customers right now are friends, family and other pack members but as the brand grows, I hope to start selling internationally.”

“That’s pretty cool,” Wendell grinned, asking a few more probing questions, half because he was interested and half to be polite. As makeup, beauty and other cosmetics wasn’t something that he was particularly interested in – a factor which didn’t make him her target audience – he quickly found himself losing interest in the conversation.

Once that questions dwindled to a close, he was eager to move on.

“And you said that you were a warrior?” he asked, turning his attention back to Rain only to find that she had been watching the exchange of words between him and Holly quite closely. At that, he had to keep his lips from curling up into a large smile.

“Yes,” a small smile spread over her face, seemingly coming alive. It appeared that Wendell wasn’t the only one that had found the conversation about Holly’s online business somewhat excruciatingly long. No doubt she had heard a lot about it already as they appeared to be long childhood friends.

“How long have you been a warrior?” Wendell asked, genuinely curious.

“Since I was a pre-teen,” Rain told him. “I’m actually the second-born to be a Beta so that means my brother is taking over. Even though I’m not meant to be Beta, and I don’t mean to show off, but I don’t quite feel like a regular wolf. Training as a warrior really helps zone that in.”

“I get where you’re coming from,” he hummed in agreement and understanding. “My brothers are in a similar situation, too.”

Before his comment, Rain had looked slightly nervous with her admission but now, she stood beaming from ear to ear. And he couldn’t have felt better about eliciting such a reaction out of her.

While he clearly felt more of a connection to Rain than Holly, he still couldn’t be one-hundred percent sure simply because the scent masking spray was still in effect. It was more so to cover all bases more than anything else.

As funny as Holly was with her quirks and strange tendencies, not to mention erratic behaviour which would no doubt keep him on his toes, he found himself naturally inclined toward Rain. Perhaps it was because they had clicked better than he had with Holly or because he believed her to be quite similar to him in her mannerisms, but he found himself hoping that the Moon Goddess had paired the both of them together.

Regardless, he still had one ribbon that he needed to hand to someone and as far as he was concerned, he wouldn’t be able to do that while he was still speaking to both of these she-wolves.

Accepting ribbons from both Holly and Rain, he opened his mouth to excuse himself but didn’t manage to voice aloud anything as the two wolves from before returned; seemingly finished conversing with the two she-wolves that they had left to speak to before.

“Have you handed out all of your badges already?” Holly asked curiously as she glanced between Ethan and Troy or more specifically, eying Ethan’s jacket pocket which was seemingly brimming with all the ribbons that he had managed to collect already. On the other hand, Troy seemed far more modest.

“I have,” Ethan grinned, clearly very proud of himself. “Troy is being pretty anal about it though. He still hasn’t given away any of his ribbons.”

“I’m not being anal about it,” Troy chuckled, not the least bit fazed by his friend’s comment. “I just want to make sure that I only hand out a ribbon to the people that I feel a connection to.”

“I think that’s a good way of looking at it,” Wendell agreed aloud and at his words, Troy turned to his head to glance at him.

Wendell could see Troy’s lips moving but was unable to hear what he was saying. How could he when he had so many other things to focus on?

None of the four had mentioned it to him but glancing between them, he could tell that Troy and Rain were siblings. Other than the obvious difference being that one was male and the other female, they looked pretty similar. He wasn’t sure if Troy was the Beta brother that she had mentioned earlier, but Wendell was impressed even before that nugget of information.

Wendell wasn’t sure what he was thinking or even what was going on, but what he had previously believed to be a connection between him and Rain quickly fizzled away. Or perhaps it was still there and instead, overruled by what he was feeling toward Troy.

There was something strange about this man – Troy – and frankly, Wendell wasn’t sure if he wanted to find out what.

-

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Layla Knight

07.06.2021